Saturday, November 12, 2011

Some of My "Brilliant" Ideas

Occasionally, I'll think up something that I consider to be groundbreaking. Some of these ideas fade fast, while others float around my mind for years. However, each one of these brilliant ideas often times has at least one major flaw that I simply didn't realize when I first conceived the idea.

One idea that I had about a month ago involved our current roads and how they affect water. Asphalt can be a problem, particularly in cities. Rainwater can't get absorbed by it, so the rain doesn't make it back into the ground water supply, lowering the water table, and causing floods. So, I thought, "wouldn't it be amazing if at some point, someone, somewhere, invented a replacement for asphalt that can be used for roads and absorb water."

Later, I realized that if it could absorb water, it would most likely be able to absorb other liquids, too and that could be a problem. It would be pretty bad if antifreeze and all of the other chemicals that reach out streets, seeped into the groundwater.

My most recent idea is about agricultural fines. There are all kinds of fines for pollution and simply not running your farm how it is supposed to be run. However, many of these fines are too small for a lot of people to even care, so they do what they aren't supposed to do anyway. Also, some of the fines aren't properly enforced, causing more problems. I propose that fines be based off of income. Instead of fining everyone $1,000, why not fine a specific percentage (say 10%) of their income?

It would be fair because everyone would be paying the same percentage, so it wouldn't affect small operations more than factory farms and everyone should actually care about the money they would lose. So far, I have yet to discover any major faults with this idea, but I am sure that one will arise soon enough. Until then, I'll just keep thinking that I'm brilliant.